#winhall

A few covers of the classic adventures for the German pen-and-paper role-playing game Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye).

All covers are by Uğurcan Yüce who created more than 100 paintings for the game. He also created many covers for Gespenster-Geschichten and Tony Ballard. I think he was the go-to guy for clean and tame genre artwork. You can also see this in his horror paintings. A little violent, but not too violent. No blood, please. Sexy? Yes, but not too sexy. The covers for Das Schwarze Auge often depict scenes of characters posing and threat or impending doom rather than full-blown action.

Snow Valley Lodge in Winhall, Vermont. (photo by awesomeishotthat)

"Snow Valley was a historic and long lasting ski area that never seemed to garner enough advertising. In 1939 a rope tow was operating in Manchester, perhaps at Snow Valley. No way of telling exactly. By 1947, however, Snow Valley had installed an Alpine Lift (T-bar) with a vertical drop of 574 feet. There were several trails by this point. They also built a decent sized base lodge (Snow Man's Rest it was called) which appears below. The 1950's brought to Snow Valley several more trails (9) by 1952, and a new poma lift by 1960. Rope tows came and went at this area. This pomalift increased the vertical drop a small amount.

No mention of rope tows at this area after the mid 1960's. The only new addition to Snow Valley during this period was a gladed skiing area. The area did not operate in 1972 for reasons unknown. By 1973 they had switched to weekends and holidays only, probably due to heavy competition from Stratton, Bromley and Magic Mountain. Snowmaking was also installed at some point in the 1970's.

In 1977 a 2992', 700 skiers/hour Borvig double was built to the summit, but this was only used for 7 years until 1984 when the area closed. The T-bar was retired in 1977, but still appeared on the trail map until 1984. It has really overgrown since then, but it is still hikeable. Cross country skiers, mountain bikers, and snowmobilers regularly use the area today."

"It's also a fun place to go with your friends to shoot photos. The base lodge is the sketchiest spot as afar as walking around but there's also some sheds and remnants of the various rope tows. I have more photos on my site."